Dec 27 2013
On December 20, Russia's first and Europe's major technological complex for the production of foam glass ICM Glass Kaluga, of the project company Rusnano, was commissioned in the industrial park Borovskoye. The ceremony was attended by the Kaluga Region's Governor Anatoly Artamonov and chairman of Rusnano's board Anatoly Chubais.
The facility is aimed at hi-tech production of construction materials from foam glass. Broken glass is used as the raw material, which enables effective recycling of solid household rubbish. The complex's planned capacity is 300,000 cubic metres a year to be achieved by the facility's 50 employees. The agreed total budget exceeds 1.8 billion roubles ($54 million).
Speaking of the project's significance, Artamonov placed special emphasis on the prospects for further business relations with the Rusnano state corporation.
"Our cooperation is an important milestone in the economic development of the Kaluga Region since we have chosen the innovative path and are determined to boost the share of hi-tech products," Artamonov said.
For his part, Chubais expressed the readiness to support the region's business activity.
"Now we are realizing two joint projects in the region. The two others are afoot in innovative pharmaceutics, with a full cycle - from development to sales," he said. "Eight billion roubles ($240 million) has already been spent on the projects, and another ten billion (about $303 million) is to be invested in the near future."
On the same day, the logistics centre Freight Village Kaluga hosted a business meeting on further cooperation. For further business contacts between Rusnano and the Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programmes, on the one hand, and the Kaluga Region's government and organizations, on the other, Chubais and Artamonov signed a final protocol. The meeting resulted in the decision to set up a nanocentre in Obninsk. Chubais believes that the Kaluga Region will soon see "a second wave of nanocentres."
Note: This year the regional Government and Rusnano's Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programmes have set about implementing the programme intended to spur demand for nanotechnologies. This suggests including ten percent of innovative products, including nanotechnological ones, in the system of municipal and state procurements. Next year Rusnano is to support the construction of a centre for the positron emission tomography, PET Centre, that would not only bring early cancer detection to a new level, but also help track the dynamics and evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment underway.